1. Field of the Invention
Today's commercial buildings use hangers suspended by rods from the underside of the floor above to run pipes, electrical cables, HVAC ducts, communication lines, etc. A seismic brace is used in buildings to prevent adverse sway or movement in the event of an earthquake. Those braces keep the various independent elements of such suspended items within a building intact during an earthquake. Without seismic brackets, the independent elements, like pipe hangers, for example, will move independently. This independent movement can result in the pipes suspended in these hangers to break away from their installed positions causing damage or at least inoperable conditions.
2. Description of Related Art
Various different types of seismic braces are in current use, each having multiple parts or requiring various degrees of effort and time to install. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,065,218 shows a one piece seismic brace having a first channel iron that connects to a building element hinged to a second channel iron which attaches to the item supported. This brace takes considerable time to install because the fastener of the supported element must be completely undone to attach this brace.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,317 shows a brace for a hanger for pipes, electrical cables or the like. The hanger is suspended from a series of rods attached to the overhead floor. This brace uses a separate detached interlock element so that the brace may be attached to the rod without completely removing a hanger from its supporting rod. The interlock element must mate with the rod connecting end in a precise manner to function correctly. Incorrect use of the detached interlock piece, use of an incorrectly sized interlock piece, or simply not using it, will result in insufficient restraint or the brace coming loose during earthquake induced movement.
None of the prior art seismic braces achieve or fulfills the purpose of the present invention in providing a one piece seismic connector with an integral, built-in interlock construction that does not require disconnecting the hanger from its support rod to attach the connector end to the rod.